Ha. No that’s a couple years too early. I started playing around 11 or 12. My parents never really encouraged me much to play an instrument. I probably started begging for a guitar at around 4 then eventually got it 7 years later. My parents were divorced by the time I turned 2. I spent the summers with my father in Atlanta, GA and the rest of the year with my mother in DC. My mother wasn’t that musically enthusiastic but my father, on the other hand, was a music fanatic. He’s been collecting records since he was 14-Blues, Motown, Soul, early rock from the UK and the States… He’s responsible for instigating my obsession with music. I loved to sit and listen to him play records. He was an encyclopedia of music- he knew everything. And he’d let me make little mix-tapes of the songs or groups I really liked. As I grew up, I started to navigate my own way through music… listening to more current music, learning my own tastes.

EM: You have led quite an eclectic life- receiving an education in the performing arts, and graphic design and working a number of jobs, from modeling to doing janitorial work. Before we get into your singing career, I am interested in how these different professions and experiences shaped you as an artist?

Yeah, I think my childhood life to now was definitely unorthodox. I went to a high school that specialized in the arts. I was a visual art major then went on to college studying both visual arts (Parsons School of Design) and liberal arts- I studied art history (New School University - which Parsons is a part of). It’s hard to determine how or what precisely shaped me into the shape I’ve taken currently. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I was always on my own, not in an abandoned child way, but, my mother worked constantly… Latchkey kid, you know? I was always in my head, letting it roam where ever. I lived, (…embarrassingly, I’m still the same way) in a world that existed in my imagination. And I was such a shy kid, it took a long time for me to make friends, so influences were left to what I read about or what I heard on the radio or my parent’s book collection. TV was not really allowed so that cut out a lot of crap that could have filled my head.

Then I was sent away to school. Because I was so shy, I observed everything. I remember even in college when I was called on in class it was so painful, I’d turn red. Every job, every school, every place I found myself, I sat quiet for the most part. And it blows my mind when people assume I’m outgoing or a loud rude rocker girl. Perhaps the music gives that impression or maybe because I modeled-which is naively stereotyped as a job where you’re automatically labeled as dumb or have no inhibitions. I am very opinionated and have more than enough to say, but I’m very very shy about it. I die every time before I go on stage-so jittery. Also, I’m a big believer in learning as much as possible, even outside your work or interests. Nothing artistic will matter if you aren’t filling your head with things to feed it. And I try to do that as much as possible. I think a lot of people talk too much, they miss nuances and subtleties that matter. Most think of what they can say not what they can learn.

Photo Credit: Jay Hanna

It was self given. But the main thing or purpose for me was that there isn’t a place, a name or a thing that already exists. It’s completely blank. It isn’t synonymous with anything. I can do what I please my name.

EM: Critics  have been quite approving of your sense of style. They describe you as a fashion icon, a muse, one who represents a burgeoning, ultra-cool, underground sub-culture in LES.  Do you feel it accurately fits, or actually tarnishes how you want to be seen/valued as an artist?

Well, it accurately fits someone out there, but not me. I felt that from the beginning. This desire from either fans or haters to put me in one or the other category. For the people who care about fashion or “hipness”, I think they are trying to compliment me. And I appreciate people who like my music from that side, but I’ll ultimately let them down if they are expecting me to be seriously concerned with fashion or scenes. I literally wear the same clothes all the time so I don’t know how I could be a fashion icon. I worked in the industry once, but, that was a job. I’m not a mascot… When I modeled it was to pay for college. And I was TERRIBLE! To be honest I was too awkward. I didn’t care that much beyond making some money. Models have no voice. You are solely there to help make someone else vision, it has nothing to do with you, thus, you will be treated as such.

In turn, I’ve suffered a couple blows from the music industry for having worked in fashion. And like the fashion side, they are assuming I’m a mascot too. Some music press have tried to blame my involvement with fashion, being a former model, and a “it” girl for the reason people are interested. That’s pretty cheap and frankly, a very misogynistic view to assume that a girl who modeled can’t do anything else. Should she marry a rich guy, have kids, move to Greenwich, CT. and attend to her garden? I don’t see how modeling, even if I hadn’t been a really bad one, could prevent me from utilizing my brain, graduating from college, and doing what I want with what I’ve aspired to do since I was child. That’s ridiculous and offensive- as it should be for all women if they have the unfortunate experience of being subject to such judgment.

EM: Do you feel fashion is a big component in the music industry?

I do think there is a common ground between them. They compliment each other. But I don’t feel either is a big component to the other.

EM: How would you describe your personal style?

My personal style is what I have to work with. A lot of what I wear has been given to me. As a musician… we don’t make loads of money. To be honest, my favorite designers are the ones that I’ve gotten to know. Phillip Lim is great and so sweet; we played his show last season. Proenza Schouler are friends of mine as well; I went to high school with Jack and then college with both of them. I love the Opening Ceremony crew. We’re friends and I think it’s great what they are doing. As far as fashion icons, I don’t really have any celebrities. I love certain film characters…. The teenagers in Edward Scissorhands (including Edward), the three main characters in Stranger Than Paradise, Martha Plimpton’s character in Parenthood (I know that’s a little random but I thought she looked so cool) and the hustler in Hustler White (I love gay male subculture, it’s fascinating).

EM: When you first began singing, you were a bit reluctant? How so and more importantly, how did you finally let go and become comfortable with your own voice?

Since I was little, people have remarked on my voice as being unusual and deep. So I was insecure that it was too different. I never thought about singing. I just liked writing songs and playing the guitar. But some friends that I was playing with heard me sing and really encouraged me to start singing my own material… It took awhile and I wasn’t really convinced I should do it. Anyways, I went for it and people responded to it. I think it’s fun. I got really into the fact that I don’t have a typical female voice. I’m playing with that a lot now. I want to make it lower.

It depends, it’s not one specific subject that inspires me. I think it has a lot to do with what I wrote earlier. I’m quiet, I listen, I read, and I see, and then it takes a life of it’s own in my head. Often songs start out as one idea and become something totally different. It’s a hard question to answer- the songs are about different ideas or subjects or people. My state of mind is never consistently one state, it varies in it’s states so the songs very in theirs.

EM: Do you have a dream destination/event you’d like to perform?

With an orchestra, anywhere.

Music Video: “Boy Boy”

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http://www.trullie.com/

Published on 13 January 2010 | 4 |